The present invention relates generally to brake assemblies, and particularly to a brake assembly suitable for mounting on the frame of a bicycle, wherein brake pad devices are arranged for braking movement on both sides of the rotational plane of a bicycle wheel.
Conventional brake assemblies for bicycles generally include a pair of brake pad actuating arms which extend tonglike from a common pivotal mounting point on the bicycle frame, above the outer circumference of and in the rotational plane of the wheel. The known bicycle brake assemblies have the limitation that the common pivot point for the brake arms usually must be located close to the rotating wheel rim which is to be braked by the pads associated with the arms. Alternatively, relatively long pull levers must extend from the brake arms so that an actuating cable linked to the levers will achieve sufficient leverage to urge the brake pads against the wheel with braking force. Further, only a very small working range of adjustment of the brake pads in the radial direction of the wheel, if any at all, is obtainable with the conventional brake arrangements. Accordingly, it is not always possible to replace existing bicycle wheels with ones of different radial dimensions without providing a different bicycle brake assembly and/or remounting the brake assembly at a different location on the bicycle frame near the outer circumference of the wheel.